Paintball Vests
by Jason Orvis aka JOracle on Mar 09, 2005
The Woodsball™ Way to Haul Your Gear
www.specialopspaintball.com
In the beginning, we used to carry all our crap in our pockets. Ten-round paint tubes and 12 gram CO2 cartridges would jangle around until we used them or they fell out. Then, some enterprising paintball entrepreneur came up with a harness that carried a bunch of tubes and 12 grams. We thought paintball nirvana had come.
Twenty-somewhat years later, we shoot more paint – a LOT more paint. Paint is cheap, air is abundant and our guns shoot fast. The harness evolved into the pod belt and, now, the serious woodsballer wears a paintball vest.
Pod belts are great for speedball and some ultra-light field positions, but vests make a lot more sense for everything else. Woodsball™ and scenarioball require more gear than other forms of paintball. If you find yourself stuffing things into your pockets (where they invariably get lost,) then you know the time has come to check out a vest.
The SpecOps line of paintball vests was designed to give you the biggest possible bang for your buck. But only you can decide which features are worth paying for. If you want a vest with everything under the sun, you’ll pay a little more than if your needs are simple. A scenario paintball player will need more pocket space, more paint and more features than a Saturday recball player. Here’s what to look for in a paintball vest.
Paint 
Pods
Most vests are built to accommodate 140+ round pods. To find out how many pods you’ll need for your field position, check out your field position’s gear inventory in the positions section. If you’re playing a lot of scenarioball we recommend a standard load of 4/140+ pods but you may want to add a pod or two.
Air
It’s best to balance your air tank in the middle of your back where it won’t pull your vest to one side or the other. From the standard tank position, it’s a pretty short throw to your paintball gun. Your remote hose shouldn’t have to reach very far, especially if you’re playing with an air-through buttstock. The shorter the remote hose, the more you’ll avoid snags.
Radio
If you’re playing with a team (and you should be) you’ll need a radio
pocket, preferably on the upper part of your vest. With your radio close at hand, you can mess with the volume and toggle the PTT button with greater ease.
Grenades
Grenades are one of the greatest and most overlooked "weapons" in the paintball arsenal. If you’ll be using grenades, your vest should have a box pocket that’ll fit as many grenades as you think you’ll be using. If you like the SpecOps Paintball Pod Rockets, they fit three to a pod and can be stored in a pod slot.
Water
Camelback-style systems are a godsend for paintball players. Dehydration is probably the biggest injury risk to paintballers. Especially if you’ll be playing scenario games, make sure your vest has a pocket for your camelback or that your camelback can be slung over or under your vest.
Maps and Tools
Your vest may need an auxiliary pocket for maps, tools, ID badges, extra batteries, barrel plugs and energy bars. This extra pocket comes in really handy during long scenario games.
Waist Belt
One great thing about a pod belt is that it doesn’t slosh around when you run. A standard vest will tend to sway as you sprint. If you do a lot of fast breaks, you may want your vest to have a wide waist belt to keep your gear firmly anchored as you charge up-field. Our "Commander" Vest (link coming) and "Broadsword" Vests (link coming) come standard with this feature as they were built to carry more paint and gear.
Breatheability
Many vests fail miserably in this respect. The last thing you want is a vest that holds in a lot of heat that should’ve been bleeding off of your torso. The more mesh your vest shows, the better. Remember, the more pockets and features you add, the more mesh will be covered up by non-breathable cordura, nylon webbing or velcro. Keep your pockets to a minimum and keep your vest as open as you can.
Swabs and Squeegees
Both SpecOps Marauder and Fusion camo pants come with pockets made specifically for swabs and squeegees. If you’re running with SpecOps camo, you don’t need to worry about a special pocket for barrel cleaners. If not, you can usually fit a swab in your map and tool pocket or a strait shot squeegee tucked inside the bladder pocket on the back of your vest
D-rings
There are multiple uses for d-rings on a vest that are only limited to your imagination. Some players use them to hang masks, grenades, tools, flashlights and to hold the end of their hydration hose, to name a few. If you play mostly recball (as opposed to scenarioball) you probably only need one d-ring for your mask. During scenario games, you’ll get sick of carrying your paintball gun in your hand. A second d-ring is the solution.
Name Panel
It looks really cool to have a big nameplate on the back of your vest to aid in your team identifying you as friend or foe!. Don’t forget, however, that this nameplate blocks some mesh and holds in heat.
Protection
Scenario battles can get super intense and there are times when even a tournament player would cringe at the number of times a scenario player will get lit up if they run onto a hyped-up group of opposing players. Many players also appreciate the added body protection that a vest provides when they find themselves in an intense battle.
Besides the fact that a paintball vest looks bad-ass, it feels great to have all your gear at-hand and perfectly organized. Do yourself a favor and trade in that tired pod belt for a vest that hauls more (and does it with style.)